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Jose hopes Atlantic League is a layover

Canseco, playing for Newark with twin Ozzie, still wants to get to 500 home runs.

By BRANT JAMES

© St. Petersburg Times, published April 24, 2001

HAINES CITY -- In one breath Jose Canseco spoke of the joy of playing baseball with his twin for the first time in a decade, in the next he spoke of vindication. Riveting stuff, especially from a man whose allotments of talent, bawdiness and disappointment are as prodigious as his home runs.

But this day, the breadth of his words seemed out of proportion considering the backdrop: a corrugated tin-roofed dugout on the back lot of the Baseball City Complex, where the Kansas City Royals' minor-leaguers train.

The next epoch in the Canseco era began Monday, when the oft-injured slugger and brother Ozzie reported for their first day of spring training with the independent Atlantic League's Newark Bears. Amid a collection of career minor-leaguers, a gear bag with no pine tar and various pieces of equipment bearing other teams'logos, Canseco took batting practice, shagged a few flies and went immediately about rehabilitating an image he thinks the Anaheim Angels savaged when they released him March 29.

"The way it developed with the Angels, somehow, some way, shape or form, it was made very clear I was either injured or damaged," said Canseco, who missed 46 games with the Rays last season with a strained heel and has a history of back and arm problems. "Obviously, a person who is permanently injured can't do what I can do. I'm not 100 percent conditioned yet, but for my size I am the fastest guy in baseball, no bones about it. I am one of the top 10 fastest guys in baseball. Period. My arm has come back and no one has ever questioned my power."

Canseco has 446 big-league homers, and the 1988 AL MVP is motivated to reach 500.

"I'm 36, but a young 36," Canseco said. "I have a lot of baseball ahead of me and I want to get it at the major-league level. I want those 500 home runs. I need 54 more and I definitely want that, and I'll do what I need to do to get back."

Canseco batted .257 last season with the Rays before being claimed off waivers by the Yankees. Left off the playoff roster, he signed with Anaheim in January but was released after the team traded for Glenallen Hill.

Although he said the Yankees and Blue Jays negotiated seriously with him, he decided to follow his brother to the Atlantic League, an eight-team circuit in small to mid sized Northeast markets.

The Devil Rays said they were contacted by Canseco's agent but did not have interest in signing him.

The downside to the league, apart from a hit to the prestige, is a maximum $3,000 monthly wage. The upside is that his contract, like all in the Atlantic League, is instantly voidable if any major-league club wishes to purchase it.

"This way he can talk to all 30 clubs rather than go to (Toronto Triple-A affiliate) Syracuse, get locked in and have to hope someone on the big league roster gets hurt," said Bears owner/president Rick Cerone, a former catcher with the Yankees. "If he's healthy, he should be in our league about two months."

Getting Canseco was facilitated by Ozzie, who hit 48 homers and won the Atlantic League MVP last season.

"The dialogue was (Ozzie) saying, "Can I bring my brother with me?' " Cerone said. "It took a little while, but we're not going to turn that down."

The club had to cut two players to make Canseco one of three Bears making league maximum.

Now that the deal is done, the Cansecos can play together for the first time since 1990, when Ozzie got 19 at-bats at the end of the season with the A's.

Ozzie said he's not worried about losing his status as the Canseco in the Atlantic League.

"I cannot compete with him," he said. "My entire life I've been compared to him and what not, and I've learned a lot of things from that experience. I try to use my style of hitting and my style of thinking and just be Ozzie Canseco up there."

The plan is for Jose to play mostly outfield and bat third, with Ozzie at designated hitter and batting cleanup.

"I want to play baseball with my brother and have a good time," Jose said. "I'm fully prepared to stay here all year. If no one wants me, I can live with it."

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